Homeless shelter overflowing

Jim Growden, Baptist minister in Tullahoma, Tennessee, is involved in the running of a shelter for homeless people.

clipped from www.manchestertimes.com As unemployment hovers near eight percent nationwide, the Shepherd’s House board of directors and its volunteers continue to serve the homeless in Coffee County and the surrounding area. Staff members of the Shepherd’s House, located at 712 First Ave., Tullahoma, are the Rev. Jim Growden, director; Carol Growden, assistant director; and Terri Beard, house manager. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, 2008 the house served as a temporary shelter for 209 people, according to the Rev. Jim Growden, director.

Jim Growden is my (Steve Hayes) third cousin once removed. Jim was educated at Tullahoma High School, Motlow State Community College, Belmont University, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Trinity Theological Seminary. He spent 10 years in the US Marine Corps, and entered the ministry in 1968, and became pastor of Westwood Baptist Church, Manchester, Tennessee in 1999.

He is the son of Arthur Franklin Growden and Flora Myers. He and his wife Carol have two sons.

Growdens in St Neot

I went to LDS Family History Centre in Parktown and looked at St Neot burial records. and found the deaths of Joseph and Elizabeth Growden (nee Cocker).

There were also several Growden children, I presume their grandchildren, who died in a typhus epidemic that struck St Neot around 1830. There was a dramatic increase in the number of burials in that year.